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Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesEthics experts were voiceful in their disapproval of the plan President-elect Donald Trump unveiled during his Wednesday Trump Tower press conference to separate himself from his business empire, saying that the proposal still left the door open to massive conflicts of interest.

President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he plans to leave his business “in total” to focus on the White House and will discuss the matter at a news conference Dec. 15 in New York with his children, some of whom are business associates.

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With the exception of the lawyers he hired to construct it, it’s hard to find any government ethics experts who believe President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to distance himself from the management of the Trump Organization while maintaining his ownership stake is enough to eliminate concerns about conflicts of interest.

NEW YORK — It’s a glittering jewel in Donald Trump’s hotel empire. Securing the rights to use the government-owned building where it is housed took him more than a year of negotiating. The resulting lease itself runs hundreds of pages, complicated and dreadfully dull.
Dull save for clause 37.19 on top of page 103, which has suddenly become the subject of great discussion among experts on government contracting law, and not a few Trump critics.

On November 30, in one of his early morning tweets, Donald Trump, seeking to alleviate concerns of conflict of interest within his huge business empire, announced that he will be "holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstU.S. President-elect Donald Trump has often boasted about the strict confidentiality pledges he exacts from his employees.
Now a legal challenge to one of those agreements is pending before a U.S. agency over which he will soon have influence, potentially posing an early test of concerns about conflicts of interest between Trump's public role and his business empire.

Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesThe question of whether President-elect Donald Trump will run afoul of federal conflict-of-interest rules or the Constitution because of his extensive foreign investments has been the subject of intense scrutiny among legal and ethics scholars.
Legally, his foreign licensing deals could violate the Constitution.